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BOKUTACHI NO IRU TOKORO.- GOMI

You know them albums that you buy that are just amazing from start to end? The ones that you keep spinning and spinning until you know it like the back of the hand? Well, meet your newest addition to that collection, Bokutachi no Iru Tokoro.‘s “Gomi“. Yes. It’s that good. So good I need to swear. FUCKING GOOD.

First up though, “WHO THE HELL ARE BOKUTACHI NO IRU TOKORO.?” you may ask, if you haven’t been following my rants about them. Well, they’re a neat upcoming band that happen to make some of the best down and dirty rock in years. They have a truly amazing and VERSATILE vocalist named Jinsei Dame Ko who invokes elements of Mariko Goto and Jun Togawa, blended with her own signature growl. They also happened to have put out my personal favorite album of last year, “Kono Yo ni Umarete Kita Koto ga Somosomo Machigai Datta kara“.

What’s that? You want catchy? Accessible but not too accessible? Well it’s here, pal. All over this little beast of a record. It’s evident right from it’s energetic opener “Moeru Gomi” right to it’s Togawa in Yapoos’ era invoking “Yada Na“… and then of course there’s the amazing, triumphant masterpiece that is “Ai Towa“. It’s hard not to get overwhelmed with feelings both nostalgic and personal, with it’s amazing hook that seems like it was shot down from the Rock Gods themselves.

This isn’t a case of yours truly claiming “this band are so cutting edge! They’re so original”- no, not by a long shot. Infact, they’re the very opposite. Everything here has been done before. Many, many times. However– they are doing it with such amazing gusto that it’s hard not to be blown away. Think of every dirty rock band you’ve heard- every moment that made your jaw just drop- condensed- into a mere 30 minutes. That’s Gomi. And it will light that fire that’s been missing in your Japanese rock music catalog.

The production values here are insane considering how ‘indie’ the band are- it just feels great to blast loud without any distracting elements. It’s all ‘there’, punchy as fuck without losing any power through bad mixing choices. Major label rock bands should heed advice from this album- THIS IS HOW YOU PRODUCE A ROCK ALBUM. It makes me unbelievably happy to listen to. It has the power to just stop you eating on that greasy snack, close whatever porn you’re looking at and fucking listen to it.

If I was going to pick an element that *just* stops it from hitting the 10/10 league, it’s the slight jerk that the last two tracks give, they just seem slightly out of order. They’re great individually (an acoustic version of the aforementioned “Ai Towa” followed by the absolutely wild “Mushakusha Shite feat. Ishii Motako/Nakabayashi Kirara (from Oshiri Penpens)“), but don’t really end the album all that well- giving it the impression of it just ‘ending’ without any kind of real closure. But seriously, when the whole album is so damn good, you’ll be pressing play to listen once again once it’s finished anyway. So more of a nitpick than anything.

Overall though, Bokutachi‘s “Gomi” is almost unbelievably good, and while I may be the only one who shares this view- I feel that it’s safe to say that no Japanese rock album this year will remotely come close to the consistency of greatness that this little band have put onto disc here. It’s ridiculous.

9.5/10. A (near) perfect record that every Japanese rock fan should have ordered by now. Bokutachi no iru tokoro. remind us that sometimes all it takes is mastering simple things to make something extraordinary.